Musix To My Ears

As I strive to create the perfect multimedia office setup, I’ve had the chance to look at software, tools and Linux distros that will bring their own features to the table. This is a look at the Linux distribution Musix and how it applies to my multimedia focused office.

Musix is a Live CD/DVD Linux operating system that is based on the popular Debian distro. Musix focuses on the x86 processor and contains many audio production, graphic design, and general applications. One detail about Musix that’s worth mentioning from the start is that this distro uses one hundred percent free software. Musix provides a wide variety of tools making a great addition to any music studio. a few things you can do with Musix that may benefit your setup are master CDs, publish musical scores, print musical scores, create MIDI instruments, record and reproduce audio and MIDI, edit/mix audio tracks, recover audio with noise reduction tools, and create audio effects in real time. These are just a few things Musix can do for you. Musix is also supported by languages like Spanish, Galician, Catalan, Basque, English, Portuguese and French. On May 19th, 2009 Musix 2.0 Beta 1 was released based on Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 Lenny to provide a testing system for the Musix 2.0 release. A few other changes included Linux-libre Kernels 2.6.27-1 and 2.6.29-1revised to improve mount actions. As a big time fan of the GNOME desktop environment I was thrilled to see that GNOME was added to the already present KDE, LXDE and Icewm+Rox.

Musix is one of the few Linux distros that can compete with expensive audio software and tools. My prospective to my own setup has been any tool I can get for free is worth getting, using and supporting. Free and open-source Linux applications that don’t offer all of the features of expensive Windows software won’t stay that way for long.

A good example of this is the GNU Image Editor, GIMP. If you used Gimp in 2000, which is when I first used GIMP version 1.2, like me you may have felt GIMP had inferior features, filters, and plugins compared to Photoshop. I invested some of my time into learning how to use GIMP because it was free. GIMP has been developed and refined over time and now GIMP isn’t just free, it’s customizable, packed with features and matches Photoshop step for step while offering a few unique tricks of its own.

Musix may include free audio tools that are missing a feature here and there but don’t underestimate the power of free software whether it’s audio, video, graphic design or any other applications. Give Musix a try and you may just find a few tools that belong in your studio.

Here’s a look at the default LXDE desktop displayed while running Musix 2.0 beta Live DVD.